Read this fascinating book: Predator Nation by Charles H. Ferguson. It has only 10 chapters to read, they go fast and you will have powerful insight into the corporate national institution and wealthy oligarchy of our nation. It explain the financial times we live in and why no one, not even Obama with his leftist magic-wand can save the nation of its corrupt financial calamity inflicted upon society since 1980’s. A brief quote of Mr. Ferguson’s excerpt summarized:

“Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward [social] mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population. Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries such as telecommunications, health care, automobiles, and energy. These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry.” And In chapter six, Mr. Ferguson retracted us back to the 80’s:

“It is no exaggeration to say that since the 1980’s, much of the American (and global) financial sector has become criminalized, creating an industry that tolerates or even encourages systemic fraud. The behavior that caused the mortgage bubble and financial crisis was a natural outcome and continuation of this pattern, rather than some kind of economic accident.”

Mr. Ferguson wrote clearly depoliticize arguments and bluntly the facts about “corporate criminals, public corruption, and the hijacking of America”. You can read the book for free (click here) about the psychopathic-greed and avarice of our corporate institution, the wealthy CEO that makes millions just by moving numbers around like playing Monopoly’s games. In fact, they are playing with people’s life as we’ve seen so many corporations going under the drift of chaos and corruption destroying thousand of lives. After reading the book ones wonders about where the personal saving of 401K, business investment, college saving, national debt, retirement and future U.S economic solvency will end up. The book, Predator Nation is summarized in the fallowing way:

“Over the last several decades, the United States has undergone one of the most radical social and economic transformations in its history.

Finance has become America’s dominant industry, while manufacturing, even for high technology industries, has nearly disappeared.

The financial sector has become increasingly criminalized, with the widespread fraud that caused the housing bubble going completely unpunished.

Federal tax collections as a share of GDP are at their lowest level in 60 years, with the wealthy and highly profitable corporations enjoying the greatest tax reductions.

Most shockingly, the United States, so long the beacon of opportunity for the ambitious poor, has become one of the world’s most unequal and unfair societies.

If you’re smart and a hard worker, but your parents aren’t rich, you’re now better off being born in Munich, Germany, or in Singapore than in Cleveland, Ohio, or New York. This radical shift did not happen by accident. Ferguson shows how, since the Reagan administration in the 1980s, both major political parties have become captives of the moneyed elite. It was the Clinton administration that dismantled the regulatory controls that protected the average citizen from avaricious financiers. It was the Bush team that destroyed the federal revenue base with its grotesquely skewed tax cuts for the rich. And it is the Obama White House that has allowed financial criminals to continue to operate unchecked, even after supposed “reforms” installed after the collapse of 2008.”

“[The] greed in high finance, are generally smart enough that they stay on the right side of the provable, legal technicalities. And if any such technicalities get in the way too much, they generally make sure that they successfully lobby to have them repealed before they breach them. The problem with Wall Street is not that they are criminals, it is that they have successfully made sure that what they do is neither prohibited nor reined in.”

Mr. Ferguson claimed that he is not anti-capitalist or free market’ spoiler:

“I’m not against business, or profits, or becoming wealthy. I have no problem with people becoming billionaires—if they got there by winning a fair race, if their accomplishments merit it, if they pay their fair share of taxes, and if they don’t corrupt their society . . . I have no problem at all with the fact that Bob Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove made a lot of money. Same for Larry Ellison at Oracle, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple, the founders of Google, eBay, Craigslist, Amazon, and Genentech, and, for that matter, Warren Buffett.

But that’s not how most of the people mentioned in this book [Predator Nation] be-came wealthy. Most of them became wealthy by being well connected and crooked. And they are creating a society in which they can commit hugely damaging economic crimes with impunity, and in which only children of the wealthy have the opportunity to become successful. That’s what I have a problem with. And I think most people agree with me.”

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About Mar Defoe

USA WORLD -Is an independent interdisciplinary blog that writes political commentaries from a variety of multicultural disciplines and under different categories: world affairs, literature, USA politics, satire-graphic-design, technology, psychology, academics, cultural studies. This blog allows others bloggers to partake in our 21st century world issues.